2. Summary
No. of Sites 81
Nests 6141
Species 9
Total No nesting trees 359
A total of 6141 nests belonging to 9 species of waterbirds from 81 sites were
counted during the survey in 5 district of Kerala.
The 5 districts were – Kasaragod, Kannur, Alappuzha, Kollam, Kottayam and
Trivandrum
4. 29%
34%
2%
15%
16%
2% 2% 0% 0%
Percentage composition of species in 2016
Little Cormorant
Indian Pond Heron
Little Egret
Oriental Darter
Indian Cormorant
Night Heron
Intermediate Egret
Great Egret
Purple Heron
5. Little
Cormorant
29%
Indian Pond-
Heron
28%
Little Egret
14%
Oriental Darter
10%
Indian
Cormorant
6%
Black-crowned Night-
Heron
5%
Intermediate
Egret
4%
Black-headed
Ibis
3%
Others
1%
Percentage of the breeding birds 2015
Little Cormorant
29%
Indian Pond
Heron
34%
Little Egret
2%
Oriental Darter
15%
Indian
Cormorant
16%
Night Heron
2%
Intermediate
Egret
2%
Great Egret
0%
Purple Heron
0%
Percentage composition of species in 2016
6. Participants
Trivandrum Kollam Alappuzha Kannur Kasaragod Kottayam
AK Sivakumar AK Sivakumar
Harikumar
Mannar Roshnath R Roshnath R Sreekumar
Jaichand Johnson Jeffin John Rajeesh R Sachin C Saju Vasan
Jeffin Govind Girija Sethu Dinesh Sudeep N Unnikrishnan
Govind G Ashli Jose Giju Kumarakom
Shiby Mossess
7. Minutes of 2016 meeting
Proposals given to KFD on heronry conservation to be actively followed
up.
PO Nameer
Proposal for conservation of top ten heronries to KFD Roshnath
Update all heronry data in eBird Roshnath, Praveen J
Circulate recent heronry data sheet to Shah Jahan etc Roshnath Done
Create an online Heronry Data form Shah Jahan
Identification of threatened heronries
8. Sl. No. District Site Habitat No of
nest
Threat
1 Wayanad Panamaram River 648 Sand mining
2 Alappuzha Vada canal Wetland 610 Tree felling, bursting crackers
3 Alappuzha Ennakkad Islet of Acacia 448 No threat being isolated islet
4 Thrissur Kallettumkara Non-residential area
(Railway station)
443 Natural predation, crackers, Cutting trees,
branches
5 Mahe Mahe church Roadside 265 Disturbance during nesting season
6 Alappuzha Pallippadpuncha Residential compound near
wetland
258 Disturbances from tree custodians
7 Kannur Naniyoor Islet of mangroves 237 No present threat (poaching reported
earlier)
8 Palakkad Pittupeedika Roadside 237 Cutting down of branches and natural death
of trees due to Guano deposit
9 Kannur Valapattanam Mangroves 218 Encroachments by timber factory
10 Kottayam Nagampadom Roadside 218 Road widening, Public nuisance
11 Kasaragod Kanhangad Non-residential area
(Railway station)
208 Cutting down of tree branches
12 Alappuzha Pavukkara, Residential compound near
wetland
206 Tree damage from guano deposit
13 Malappuram Klari, MSP camp MSP compound 203 No threat inside MSP compound
14 Palakkad Pazhambalakod
e
Roadside 185 Cutting down of tree branches/ trees
Threats faced by Top 15 heronry site in Kerala during 2015 heronry survey
9. Achieved (in 2016 minutes)
• Notifying heronry sites as protected area?
• In Kannur, the Social Forestry Division, KFD has promised all help for
conducting the survey. They are also planning to put up sign boards at
the major heronries, highlighting the protection status of the nesting
birds and their ecological importance. They have requested for
suggestions from the birdwatchers on how to implement this
proposal effectively.
11. Future?
• Survey to be done in all districts?
• Lack of response from KFD in many districts
• In case of heronries in public places where the local people complain
of nuisance caused by droppings etc., tarpaulin sheets should be
placed below the nest trees. At some appropriate sites, “heronry
guards” (this was designed by Praveen Mohandas can be tried out
and if found successful, can be implemented in other places also.
